UNITED boss Sir Alex Ferguson has hailed Reds goal hero Ryan Giggs after his performance on his 100th European appearance.

Giggs scored his 23rd European goal on his centenary appearance after his free-kick took a deflection to beat the Benfica defence.

And with the milestone appearance marking only his second start of the season, Ferguson said he was pleased to see how well Giggs had done.

"Ryan got off to a bad start to the season, he was out for three weeks with a chest infection and the team was playing well enough with Rooney, Ronaldo and Van Nistelrooy," he said.

"With Rooney out I thought experience was going to be important, particularly with so many inexperienced players in the team, even though I don't think Park Ji-Sung deserved to be out with his performance on Saturday.

"Ryan not only scored but he also helped Kieran Richardson throughout the whole night - he could go forward in attack knowing that Ryan would cover for him."

United were further buoyed by the 0-0 result in the group's other game between Villarreal and Lille.

Ferguson added: "That's perfect for us. Villarreal and Benfica are the teams I would worry about most, they go head to head now and if we do our job properly against Lille we have a good chance."